The only Sweet 16 team based in the Pacific Time Zone is heading to New Jersey while four teams from the eastern half of the country are coming to the West regional in San Francisco.
The conflicting logistics make no sense and complete sense in the complex world of NCAA Tournament bracket formulation.
And they could make for a sterile atmosphere Thursday night at the Chase Center when Florida plays Maryland and Texas Tech meets Arkansas.
Why is Arizona, the highest-seeded team from the western half of the country, facing Duke in the East regional in Newark? Wouldn’t the Wildcats — not to mention college basketball fans in the Bay Area — have been better served in a region where they have decades-long competitive ties and thousands of alumni?
Allow us to explain.
The NCAA selection committee has a litany of principles and procedures for placing teams into regions. But everything flows from the desire to place the four highest-seeded teams from a given conference into different regions when they are among the top 16 teams in the committee’s ranking of all 68 participants. (That ranking is commonly referred to as the ‘true seed’ list.)
Proximity to campus for the opening weekend is a priority, as well. But as the committee works its way through the brackets, home cooking becomes more difficult to create when there are numerous teams from the same conference in the field.
So let’s examine the Big 12 situation.
Houston, the conference champion, was No. 3 on the true seed list and received priority. The Cougars were assigned to a Wichita pod for the opening weekend and into the Midwest regional in Indianapolis.
(Indianapolis isn’t exactly down the street, but it’s closer to Houston than San Francisco. The other two regional sites already had top seeds assigned: Auburn, the No. 1 overall seed, picked Atlanta and Duke, which was No. 2, received Newark.)
Next up from the Big 12 was Texas Tech, the No. 9 team on the true seed list. The Red Raiders were placed in the second Wichita pod and, by that point in the process, were set for the West.
Then came Iowa State, which was 10th on the true seed list. The Cyclones were placed in the South regional, with an opening weekend in nearby Milwaukee.
That left only one regional, the East, available for Arizona, the 16th overall seed but the fourth Big 12 team.
By the time the brackets were complete, none of the big-brand schools from the Pacific Time Zone were in the West: Arizona was headed East while UCLA and Gonzaga were assigned to the Midwest.
Of the 16 teams capable of advancing to the Chase Center, only No. 12 Colorado State and No. 13 Grand Canyon could claim any geographic connection (albeit flimsy) to the Bay Area.
The far-flung composition of the West regional participants could undermine attendance and interest within the Bay Area. And certainly, the East regional assignment doesn’t benefit Arizona competitively or its fans financially.
But the committee doesn’t compromise in the twin missions to 1) assign the top four teams in each conference into separate regions and 2) place teams as close to home as possible for the opening weekend.
As it descends the seed lines, the established principles make for limited flexibility — even if the process ends with a West regional field in which the closest campus is located in Lubbock.
*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to [email protected] or call 408-920-5716
*** Follow me on the social media platform X: @WilnerHotline
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
